Motor-operated door latch



Sept. 29, 1925. 1,555,174

w. WILLIAMS MOTOR OPERATED DOOR LATCH Filed Aug. 29, 1924 z'sneets-sneet 2 l l 176 'I atto: @w11 Patented Sept. 29, 1925.

UNITED STATES winmx wnmuxs, oir nmrwoon,

IOTOMPIRATED D003 LATCH.

Application lled August il, 19M. lorlal In. 734,9.

To all whom it may concern.'

Be it known that I, WILLIE Wmnmns, a citizen of the United States, residing at Brentwood, in the county of Williamson and I State of Tennessee, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in a Motor- Operated yDoor Latch, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates generall to vehicles of the automobile type and as more particular reference to a means whereby the retaining latches of the doors may be released and the doors opened in an automatic manner, and wherein any one of the doors of the vehicle may be opened by the operator thereof without the necessity o f leaving his seat.

An additional object of the invention is to provide latch releasing and door opening mechanism of. this character that may be readily and inexpensivel associated with practically all forms of ve icles and one that will uire but little attention u on the part of the operator and that is so simple of construction as to be readily repairable by the operator of the vehicle. l

In carrying out the present invention I provide an air Stora e tank that is preferably located alongside the vehicle motor I0 and beneath the'motor hood. An air compressor in communication with this tank is also part of the equipment and is adapted to be operated continuously during the operation of the vehicle motor. Associated I5 with each of the door latch mechanisms is an air pressure responsive means for moving the latch bar to unlocked position. Associated with each door of the vehicle is a piston and cylinder construction, the piston of which is operatively connected to the door and immediately subsequent to the releasing of the particular door latch mechanism the air is led to the`cylinder for operating the piston for moving the door to an open position. Additional means is provided for injecting the air pressure to the 'opposite end of the c linder for 'reversin the. movement of the piston in the closing o the door. V

l0 Other objects of the invention will become apparent as the nature thereof will be better understood from the following description when' taken in consideration with the accompanying drawings wherein like reference characters indicate corresponding parts throu out the several views.

In t e drawings?- Figure 1 is a iagrammatic top plan view of a conventional form of motor vehicle equipped with my latch releasing and door opning mchanim.

igure 1s a r enta rspective of one side of the ve icle, oliiyepoef the doors thereof being shown in open position, the same having been moved to open position through' the medium of the piston and cylinder construction forming an essential part or the -invention and beingdisclosed in this view.

Figure 8 is a detail longitudinal sectional view through one of the air operated latch devices associated with each of the vehicle doors, and

Figure 4 is a tcp plan view of a particular form.

Now having articula" reference to the drawings, the

orm. of vehicle shown is designated nerally by the reference character 5 an is of a conventional form of automobile, the same including chassis barsv 6, a bod 7, a power plant 8 andfour doors all of w 'ch are designated by the reference character A.

My invention per se constitutes the provision of an air storage tank 9 that'is preferably disposed beneath the hood of the vehicle and alongside of the motor 8, the same being provide with an automatic blow off cock 10 whereb after the air has reached a predetermine pressure therein the same will be allowed to discharge. This tank 9 has communication with an air compressor pump 11 that is oierated throu h a suitable connection 12 by t e motor 8 o the vehicle. Associated with each of the doorsA of the vehicle .is a particular form of compressed air actuated latch mechanism and air operated mechanism for moving the door to open and closed position. It `will therefore not be necessary to describe all of these mechanisms for the different doors, a description of one suicing for each.

Now particularly referring to Figures 2v and'3 the door A is provided upon itsv inner side and adjacent its free edge with a lock mechanism which constitutes the rovision 6 of a vertically disposed bracket 13 ormed at its opposite end 'with sleeves 14 and 15 of various diameters. yArr within the sleeve 15 is a cylinder 16 closed at its opposite end and with the forward end of-.w ich communicates an air hose 17 preferably of iexible material that extendsidownwardl and passes into the door for a certain len and then outwardly therefrom to a` point hereinafter yto be more fully described. Rectilinearly movable within'this cylinder 16 is a piston 18 carried by the front end of a rearwardly Aextending piston rod v19 that e slidesthrough an-o ning in the rear wall of the cylinder lan thatv is for'med at ita external end with an upwardly extending ortion 20 that is in turn formedA with a orwa'rdly extending horizontal pgrtion 21 that effects a latclil-bolt,l the same ably en ed through the uppermost sleeve 14 of sai' "b'racketf13. Betweenthis sleeve 14 and an abutment 22 formed upon the latch bolt is an e ansible s ring 23 that serves as a means or norma y projecting the forward end of the bolt 21 piston 27 upon the inner end of a rod l28 lthat extends outwardlyzthrougli a acked4 pipe g in thefr'nt wallof the'cylin er and atzhasivotalteoiinebtion at 29 at" itslopf pomte' en witl'i'fthe'iespective door 'A atI the ;lower edgethereof as clearly shown in Figure 2. At the front and rea'r ends of| said-AI cylinder vare air vents 30 and 31 respectively. for an obvious purpose.

board o a vehicle 1s a'- valve casing 32 uipped with a hand o erated valve comementary to each' of t e doors f the ve v icle which in this instance is four in numf ber. These valves are of the two-way construction and leading from the sup ly tank 9' to the 'inlet of each of these vailves Vare coliiunicating pi es 33. From one of the disc arge pipes o each of these valves is a flexible tube 34 that has communication with the forward end of a res ective cylinder 26 as shown in Figure 2. rom the remaining discharge of the particular valve is a exible pipe 35 that has communication with the rear end of the cylinder also as shown C6 in Figure 2. This pipe is formed or procylinder, a desira '16 of thelatch mechanism the cbec outwardly f of the free edge ofthe door A in order that vided with, at a oint directly adjacent the Ele check valve 36 this pipe being also in communication with at a forward of the check valve with the inlet pige 17 of the latch mechanism.

rom the foregoing description when considered in conjunction with the accompany# ing drawings it will be obvious that when any one of the doors is moved from an open to a closed position a particular valve will be moved to such a position in order to inject the compressed air into the c linder valve point 36 in the lead to the cylinder 26 preventing t entrance of air thereinto at that time. As soon as the piston 18 and the cylinder 16 has moved rearwardly to the limit of its movement the latch bar 21 will be moved to open osition and the pressure of the air will t en be such as to overcome the check valve 36 after which it will move the piston A27 in the cylinder A26 forwardly for coning slidi se uently opening the' particular door.

vhe cylinder 16 of the latch mechanism is formed adjacent its forward end 'with air vent 37 for allowing the pistoii18 to again move forwardly under the action of the sprin23 when the air supply has been cut ofi' fter this air supply has been cut off and it desired to close the door, the particular valve is turned in an opposite direction for discharging the air tothe forwardend of the cylinder 26.

It will thus be seen that I have provided a highly novel simple and eilicient means for releasing the latches and opening the doors of motor vehicles, and one I believe meets all the requirements for a successful commercial use.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patentszf f J "I 'r1'.- A latc'li'lzmechanism bination, a bracket provided witlia pair of sleeve portions, a cylinder mounted in one of the sleeve portions a U'shaped member havin one sidev sli'dable into the cylinder and t e other side Islidable through the Arranged preferably upon the instrument other sleeve portion, a piston on the end of the side of the U-shaped member within the cylinder, means for directing compressed air into the cylinder for moving the'piston and the U-shaped member, and means associated with the U-shaped member for holding it in a predetermined position.

2. In combination, a door, and a latch mechanism associated with the .door including a vertically disposed bracket havin a air of spaced sleeve portions one smaller an the other, a cylinder disposed in the lar er sleeve portion, a U-shaped member having one side slidable through the smaller sleeve portion, and the other side slidable into the c linder, a piston on the side slidable into t e cylinder, means for delivering coin-l including in com- 1 between the 5 holding the ton in a. pre

sto and the smaller sleeve for U-s aped member and the pisdetermined positiomso that the end of the side slidable through the smaller sleeve may function as a latch and when compr air is allowed to flow into the cylindellthe piston will be moved for rel0 leasing e latch.

In testimony whereof I aix my signature.

WILLIE WILLIAMS. 

